Wednesday, 5 November 2008

Why our election night is so much better than theirs

All credit to the US of A for one of the great political contests for the ages.

But British election nights sure beat them hands down for political theatre: the returning officers making the declarations; the candidates hearing their fate in Town Halls (and leisure centres) up and down the land.

What the Yanks have is very clever wonks in the studios with their interactive county-by-county maps - and the networks telling us what the computers say, and filling in the time with CNN's silly hologram.

Sure, there will be plenty of drama and history by dawn. The Chicago crowds are building up. Perhaps even Obama won't remain cool as a cucumber through this.

But we've probably just had the key moment of the election night.

So, were you up when some of the networks called Pennsylvania - but CNN and the others weren't quite sure?

3 comments:

wolf's 'magic map' at cnn is no match for snow's 'swingometer' on bbc...and frankly i'm getting a bit of a headache from all the flashing images and moving text they have flooding the screen (though in terms of election night broadcasting embarrassment, the holograms are still no match for jeremy vine's antics earlier this year...)